


Chain of Memories: Video Game Edition

by NekoNikki



Series: Kingdom Hearts: Video Game Edition [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts, Super Paper Mario - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Port part two, The incomplete fic version, maybe one day I'll finish this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-08-06 08:47:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16384964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NekoNikki/pseuds/NekoNikki
Summary: After defeating Ansem, Sora, Bowser, Luigi, and Tippi discover the mysterious Castle Oblivion, and start their search to once more find Riku, Mario, and Count Bleck, but as they travel through the castle halls, their memories begin to fall apart, and Sora begins to remember a mysterious girl named Naminé. Video game novelization of Chain of Memories.





	1. Chapter 1

Sora, Bowser, Luigi, and Tippi were walking (or flying in Tippi's case) down a dirt road in a grassy field.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Luigi asked.

"We've gotta find Riku, Blumiere, and your bro," Sora said.

"What? No way!" Bowser shouted.

"Bowser, we've got to help Sora find his friend since he helped us," Tippi said. "But you know… where is the door to the light Mario mentioned?"

They all sighed, although a different reason for Bowser. There wasn't even a lead on where the door to light would be.

"Hey, we can't let us get that down, right," Sora said. They all looked at each other. Sora was right; they had to keep searching if they were to find it.

"You're right," Luigi said. "Let's follow this road; it has to lead to the door!"

"That's an excellent way to look at it," Tippi said. "There's nothing stopping us, we'll just look until we find it."

"Guys, let's go." He waved his hand forward and started running down the road, the others followed and he smiled.  _Don't worry Riku, I'll find you._

* * *

 

It wasn't long before night fell upon the grasslands. Despite having run a long distance, they had yet to have any sign of the door to light Mario had mentioned.

"Let's set up camp here for the night," Luigi said. "We're probably safe here."

"Somebody should keep watch though," Tippi said. "You never know when the Heartless might decide to attack."

"Tippi's right, I'll take first watch," Sora said.

"You sure?" Luigi asked.

"Don't worry about it." Sora waved off the idea of a lack of sleep like it was nothing. "You guys get some rest and I'll wake you up when I need sleep."

"Great idea," Bowser said. The koopa king laid on the grass instantly, Luigi following while Tippi took a perch on Sora's head.

"You can sleep too Tippi, you've been through just as much as we have," Sora said to the Pixl.

"I don't mind staying up. You could use the company anyways," Tippi said.

Sora shrugged in response. "Okay then. Hey, you're okay, right?"

Tippi seemed surprised by his question. "I guess…why?"

"So much has happened since we first met in Traverse Town, to you especially…"

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine," Tippi said. "Worry about yourself first, you're the one every world will have to rely on."

"Yeah, that's true, and we'll have to run into everyone again sooner or later, right?" Sora asked.

"Of course," she said. "Then…" she cut herself off as she looked behind Sora.

"Tippi?" He turned around too, only to lock eyes with a cloaked figure, much like the one he'd fought in Hollow Bastion. "Hey!"

The figure started to walk off in a direction, the noise Sora and Tippi made waking Luigi and Bowser from sleep. The two were farther ahead than the waking ones, arriving at a crossroads.

"Ahead lies something you hold dear-" the figure said. "but to claim it, you must lose something first."

"Sora!" Luigi ran up to Sora. "What happened?"

"We saw somebody," Sora said. "He went that way."

"Then let's go after him already!" The four continued along the dirt road until arriving at a dark castle. It's exterior brown with green spires. A dark sky sat behind its fragmented ground.

"Something about this place seems off…" Tippi said. "Are you sure you guys want to go in."

"We really don't have much to lose, might as well," Sora said.

And with that they began pushing on the castle doors.


	2. Chapter 2

Sora, Luigi, Bowser, and Tippi entered into the castle with interest. The interior of the castle was pure white, white walls, white floors, everything but the beige doors at the back of the room. It was plain, and slightly uninteresting.

"It looks pretty empty in here," Bowser said. "Plain and boring…some castle."

"How disappointing…after that cloaked figure lead us here," Tippi said. "Do you all want to keep searching here for anything or head back to the field behind us?"

"Well, we'll have to keep searching if we're going to find my bro," Luigi said with determination.

"What, Mario's here? Great, this stupid search will be over in no time and we can head home." Bowser laughed.

Luigi shook his head. "I don't know for sure that he's here, but…it just feels like he is."

"Really? I guess now that you mention it…it does feel a bit like he's here," Bowser said.

"Are you serious? I had the same feeling." Sora looked at them suspiciously. This was starting to get a bit weird. "All it took was one look at this castle and I just knew: They're here."

"Well, you know, great minds think alike," Luigi said with a shrug.

"This can't be right though." Tippi sighed. "I…I can't help but feel that Blumiere's hiding in this castle somewhere. But, we can't all be having the same feeling and be right, can we?"

Luigi nodded in agreement. "Something funny's going on. Something we need to look into."

"Alright, let's go then," Sora said. He started to walk towards the set of doors in the back of the room.

Luigi grabbed Sora and pulled him back. "Hang on, we don't know anything yet!"

"Oh come on, you're not scared, are you?" Sora teased the green plumber.

"You wouldn't be, we have no idea what's behind that door and you want to just open it? What happens if there's a giant Heartless like the Behemoth or Dimentio's super form?" Luigi asked.

"We won't find out just by standing here," Sora said.

"Honestly Sora, maybe you should think over what Luigi said and consider hanging back until we have a better idea of this place," Tippi said. "Maybe even leave and come back later when we can confirm they're all here and not just rely on some feeling."

"Yeah, I don't really feel like wasting any time on some stupid adventure for no reason," Bowser said. He turned around to the castle entrance only to see it closed. "Hey, how'd this door close?"

They all turned around to look at the locked door. "That's weird…neither of you two closed it, right?" Sora asked.

"No," Luigi said and began pulling on the door. When it didn't budge for him, Sora and Bowser soon joined in the efforts, but the door didn't budge an inch. It was locked up tight.

"How did this happen?" he asked.

Tippi started scanning around for an answer. Her ability to see hidden objects meant she could see a hidden lock or switch to open the door, and while neither of those things were hiding in the area, a very visible black cloaked figure stood by the door that lead deeper into the castle. "Guys!"

They all turned around. Sora locked eyes on the cloaked figure first. "Who is that!?"

Luigi grimaced. "How much do you want to bet it's a Heartless," he said and the three instantly jumped into action. A bright light flashed while Sora summoned his Keyblade, Bowser stood in front of Sora, claws ready for attack, Luigi stood on the other side of Bowser. The green plumber attempted to summon a fireball like he had many times before, but none came. "Come on!" He groaned and tried again.

"Let me try," Sora said. "Fire!" No fireball left the Keyblade. "Thunder!" Still no attack came. "Oh come on."

"Magic doesn't just stop working like that," Tippi said, but even she had to admit that it seemed that was exactly what happened. Any attack they'd used that had a resemblance to magic was useless.

"That's because they're magic didn't stop working," the cloaked figure said. "They don't know how to use it anymore."

"What do you mean by that?" Sora asked.

"Sora's right, you can't just unlearn magic," Tippi said.

"I should think it's obvious then," the figure said. "The moment you set foot inside this castle you forgot every spell and ability you knew...though the forgetting does not end there. In this place, to find is to lose and to lose is to find. That is the way of Castle Oblivion."

"Castle Oblivion?" Sora echoed.

The figure disappeared, his voice bringing Sora's attention to the locked door that he now stood in front of. "Yes…Here you will meet people you know…people you miss,"

"Look, there's no one-" Sora's words died on his lips as the realization hit him. "Riku! You mean Riku! He is here!"

"Do you want to find him? If you do…" The figure fired pink petals at Sora before flying through him while his guard was up. Sora attacked the figure with his Keyblade only to see it disappear into flower petals right as the weapon connected.

Sora began to look around before he once more saw the figure. "What'd you do?"

"I merely sampled your memories," the figure said. "And from them, I made this." He held up a card in his hands. The card was mostly a square with three spikes on top much like a castle. The picture on the card appeared to be dark streets. "To reunite you with those you hold dear." He tossed it to Sora.

"What's this, a card?"

"It is a promise for the reunion you seek," the figure said. "Hold the card to open the new door. And beyond it, a new world. Proceed, Sora. To lose and claim anew, or to claim anew only to lose…" With that, the figure vanished.

"Well..?" Luigi asked.

"Well what?" Sora asked in confusion.

"Do we use the card?"

"Of course we use it and see what he has to show us, right?"

"I…" Tippi seemed lost. "I don't trust him, or this card. Neither of them feel right." She fluttered over to the card. "I don't believe the door on the hall will open without it though, so if we want to continue, we have no choice."

"So it's settled then?" Sora asked. Bowser and Luigi nodded in agreement. "Let's go." He walked over to the door and lifted the card up. A bright light flashed.

When the light faded from their eyes, they were no longer in the pure white castle, but instead the dark streets of Traverse Town.

"We're in…Traverse Town?" Sora asked.

"That can't be right," Tippi said. "We…we were just in Castle Oblivion…"

"You're right," Sora said. "How'd we get here?"

"You didn't. What you see isn't real." The cloaked figure appeared in front of them. It waved one of its hands to gesture the area around them. "This town is an illusion, created by your memories ingrained in that card."

"My memories?" Sora asked. He looked to Tippi for guidance since she'd had a rather recent lack of them, but the Pixl seemed just as lost as him.

"I'm sorry Sora, I just don't know."

"That's okay, Luigi? Bowser?" Sora asked. Neither of the two responded. He turned around to see both of his partners gone. "Luigi! Bowser!"

"I sense them…but I don't see them," Tippi said. She did her best at pointing at the cloaked figure. "You had to have something to do with this. Where are they?"

"They are at the mercy of the cards now," the figure said. "Master the cards, and their strength will be yours again."

"Cards? What cards? Start making sense," Sora said. He summoned his Keyblade to his hand, preparing to face off against the figure when the figure threw two green cards into Sora's hand. The first had a picture of Luigi's face with his hand raised as though he were saying hello, the second a picture of Bowser with his arms crossed. "Huh?"

"I'm as lost as you are at this point," Tippi said. "My scans are saying those are Bowser and Luigi."

"What, that's impossible," Sora said.

"Not as impossible as you make it seem," the figure said. "The laws of the castle require your friends be transformed into cards. If you value them, you won't fail to keep them safe. Use the card, and your friends will come to your aid."

_Use the card?_ Sora lifted up the card with Luigi on it and the green plumber reappeared in front of him. "Luigi!"

"Sora!" He waved. "Do you have any idea what just happened?"

Sora shook his head. "All I know is you were trapped in this card." He looked it over, the picture of Luigi still on the front.

"I doubt that I was trapped in a card…" Luigi said and grabbed the card. As soon as he grabbed it, the card glowed and Luigi went into a battle position. He sent a fireball at the cloaked man before vanishing. Shortly after he vanished, the card returned to Sora's hand.

"Huh?" He looked at the card in comparison to Bowser's. Bowser's was vivid in color while Luigi's was dull.

"The cards you use will run out of energy, but over time your friend's hearts will replenish it and refill the cards to be used again. Everything in this castle is ruled by the cards. No matter what confronts you, cards are the only way to proceed." Sora's and Tippi's attentions were brought back to the cloaked figure.

"That's a lie! He can still fight!" Tippi said. "He's not trapped in a card like Luigi and Bowser are."

"She's right, your cards can do nothing to me." Sora smirked and got into a fighting position. He went to run at the cloaked figure, but it simply glided around him and raised its hands. A set of blue cards appeared on the back attached to his Keyblade.

"Huh?" Sora lifted the Keyblade up and looked at the cards. "What are these for?"

"Those are the number of attacks you have left," the figure said. "When those run out, your Keyblade will disappear."

"Yeah right!" Sora ran at the figure as it continued to glide around him. Each attack continually missed, even with Tippi constantly shouting warnings and directions of where it was hiding. The number of cards dangling at the back continued to decrease, and just as Sora missed once again with the last attack, the Keyblade vanished in a glow of light. "What?"

"It is as I said, when you use up your cards, you'll be unable to attack," the figure said. "The card will return over time through your heart's strength, they're probably back already." To test this, Sora resummoned his Keyblade. It came back without difficulty and a brand new set of cards on the back. "Be wary however, the more times you do this, the longer it will take to do. The cards are by no means unlimited. Use them wisely."

"Is that it?" Sora asked. In response to Sora's question, the figure vanished, leaving behind a yellow card.

Tippi flew over and picked it up. "Key of Beginnings?"

"No idea, but we'd better hold onto it for now," Sora said and grabbed the card from her. The moment he grabbed it, Luigi and Bowser reappeared. "You guys are back!"

"Back?" Bowser asked in confusion. "We never left!"

"Yeah you did…" Sora said. "You don't remember anything?"

"Well, I remember that brief moment where I tried to attack that cloaked guy, but not really," Luigi said, "Just a while light."

"Reassuring…" Tippi said. "Do you guys think you can remember anything at all inbetween Castle Oblivion and now besides that brief moment."

"Nothing," Luigi said. "Sorry Tippi."

"That's okay, we'll figure it out," Tippi said.

Sora paused in thought for a moment. "I wonder if the cards had something to do with it…"

"That is for you to ponder." They all turned around to see the figure had appeared once more. "Master the cards and make your way through the castle. But from here, you walk alone."

_Did they come back here just to tell us that?_ Sora shook his head. Whether that was the figure's motives or not didn't matter, what mattered was what was said.

"Alone!? We can't just leave Sora alone!" Luigi shouted.

"Yeah, he's hopeless without our help!" Bowser added in agreement.

"Thanks a lot, Bowser," Sora said. "Besides, I won't be alone, I have Tippi to help me out."

"You sure you'll be okay without us though?" Luigi asked.

"Of course!" Sora looked to the figure. "You want me to go alone. Fine. I can take care of myself."

"Hmph, the hero speaks boldly," the figure said. If it was possible, it might have been amused by Sora's confidence. "Go, then. The rest of Castle Oblivion awaits. Walk the avenues of latent memory, and you shall meet someone dear to you."

A bright light flashed as Luigi and Bowser disappeared, once more in their cards. The figure too had vanished, leaving Sora and Tippi alone.

"I have a bad feeling about this Sora," she said.

"Relax, Tippi. I'm ready for any tricks he's got up his sleeve," Sora said. "How hard can it be to figure out these cards anyways?" He looked over the yellow card. "Just hold it over in front that door over there, and when in battle don't attack too much so I don't run out."

"I'm not worried about your fighting abilities or your ability to adapt," Tippi said. "I just have a really bad feeling, about this whole castle."

"You want to find Riku, Blumiere, and Mario, right?" Sora asked.

"Of course, but-"

"Well, we're all agreed that they're here, so what better thing to do than start searching." Sora lifted up the yellow card by the door. It glowed for a moment before vanishing. "Come on, let's go."


	3. Chapter 3

Stepping into the room, a rather familiar site greeted Sora and Tippi. No longer in Traverse Town's first district, they had somehow arrived inside the third one.

"I guess we'll be going through all of Traverse Town while here?" he asked.

She gave a sigh. "Sora, I'm just as clueless as you are right now. You're probably right, but who knows…"

"I feel like there's something hiding in here though," he said. As if called by his words, several Heartless appeared, slinking out from every little area they could hide in the room, under lamp posts, behind banners, and they swarmed.

"Heartless! All over, mostly Shadows, but there appear to be some Soldiers and a Large Body," Tippi said. "Do you need me to rescan them?"

"These guys?" Sora asked. "Nah, I remember how to beat them." He summoned his Keyblade to his hand and slashed at one of the Shadows. It vanished into a cloud of darkness while one of the cards on the back of his blade vanished in a flash of light. He turned to another one. "Fire!" Another card vanished as the flames exploded on impact, taking out two more Shadows and a Soldier.

"What did I tell you, nothing to-"

"Look out!" She interrupted his comment with a warning as he just barely managed to avoid the Large Body as it tried to slam into him. "There are still more Heartless, so don't go bragging!"

Sora rubbed the back of his head and chuckled weakly. "Right…" he pulled out Bowser's green card and lifted it up, causing the Koopa King to appear.

"Thanks Sora, I was totally looking forward to fighting right now," Bowser said, possibly with sarcasm for all Sora knew before he let lose a torrent of flames at the Large Body, causing it to release a heart as it disappeared. With the Large Body gone, only a handful of Shadows and two Soldiers remained. Trying to save his remaining cards, he spun his Keyblade around him, slaughtering the remaining Shadows in one hit, but also costing him three cards rather than the normal single cards. One of the Soldiers kicked at Sora, causing him to raise his Keyblade in defense before slashing at it, the counterattack killing it instantly. Two hits to the last Soldier later and the Heartless were taken out.

"Sora…" Tippi said. "You should have listened to me."

"Yeah, I know," Sora said frowned. "Fighting alone is a lot harder than I thought."

A bright flash of light appeared, and Luigi and Bowser appeared. "Well, that's strange…"

"Hey, don't just randomly appear like that!" Sora said.

"Well it's not like we can just choose when we appear," Bowser said. "You're the one with the cards."

"But I didn't call you out!" Sora responded.

"Can we not fight over that and focus on something else," Luigi said. "Like maybe how we ended up in Traverse Town all of a sudden. We still have to solve that mystery."

"Huh? Right," Sora said.

"It's not really Traverse Town," Tippi said. "Or…at least I don't think it is…I think we're still in the castle."

"Really? How then?" Bowser asked.

"Well, if you all remember, the cloaked figure gave Sora the card that took him here. I believe the card could have created this town inside Castle Oblivion," Tippi said. "I'm not sure how possible it is, but it seems more likely than the alternative of the castle somehow warping us to Traverse Town, but making us follow its rules with the cards."

"Aaghh, who cares about all that," Sora said. "It's too confusing! I don't even know where we are, but let's just keep moving forward defeating Heartless! We'll get somewhere!"

"You'd better be careful, or it's the Heartless that are going to defeat you." Approaching them from the entrance to the other districts was Leon.

The group all shared a look of confusion before Sora spoke. "Leon, it's you! What are you doing in Castle Oblivion?"

"Castle Oblivion?" Leon asked them in confusion. "What are you talking about? This is Traverse Town. And how do you know my name? Who are you?"

Sora gave the others a look of alarm, but Tippi was the one who gathered her wits quick enough to speak. "Leon, we met before."

"I've never met the likes of you in my life," Leon said.

"Quit playing, Leon!" Sora tried to laugh it off as a joke despite having never seen the man joke before. If it had been Yuffie, maybe, but Leon was always so serious. "We all fought the Heartless together! You know that!"

"Look I don't know what you're talking about," Leon said. "I don't even know your names."

"You sure about that?" Bowser asked.

"…Sorry."

"Well this is just great! How am I supposed to be a great king if nobody besides these three, the princess, and Mario ever remembers me?"

"Uh…Bowser..?" Deciding to ignore the Koopa King for now, Sora turned back to Leon. "How can you have forgotten about us?"

"I feel for you, but you've got the wrong guy," Leon said. "Happens all the time. Don't take it personally Sora."

A wave of shock passed through the four, and Tippi found her voice first. "Wait, now you know it?"

"Now-now hold on. Why do I know your name?" Leon asked in confusion.

"The joke's getting kind of old," Luigi said. "Not really all that great a prank."

"I'm not joking Luigi! You, Bowser, and Tippi are just-"

"So you do remember!" Luigi responded. He had been joking all along.

Leon grabbed onto his head. "I don't get it… Something's wrong with my memory. What's happening here?"

"I dunno Leon. Maybe Aerith was on to something." And out walked the cheerful ninja Yuffie as she waved to Sora and the others. "She said she sensed some uncanny kind of power. And asked us to look into it. Well, this is as uncanny as it gets. Maybe you should take Sora and co. to see Aerith."

"Yuffie, you know my name!" Sora was excited about this. If one of them remembered, perhaps it was just something weird about Leon. So long as the others remembered him, they could always figure it out later.

"Yep! Looks like you know mine, too," Yuffie said with a smile.

"You know him?" Leon asked.

"Nope! Total stranger." It had been too good to be true and Sora knew it, but he couldn't help but hope she'd remembered him even a little bit until she'd said those words. "But I definitely know his name. Strange, yes, but convenient. We can skip the introductions."

Leon just shook his head. "How is it that you can accept the situation so easily? I don't get you…"

"Well I'm gonna run ahead and fill Aerith in," Yuffie said. "Leon, you give them the grand tour. See ya later!" She waved and walked away.

"…I guess no use pondering over it. Come on, follow me." Leon walked in the direction of the house they were all staying in Traverse Town in before literally walking through the door.

"How..?" Sora asked.

"I don't even have an answer for that one…" If Tippi was without an explanation, it was likely the others would have about as good of an idea of how that happened.

"Well, all I know is that we're still here," Luigi said. "Which is weird, but I guess a bit helpful for now."

"Which means we've missed something…" Tippi said. "You two are only here so long as there's something in this room."

"Maybe it's a card then," Bowser said. "If you keep picking them up then we have to leave."

"Well, we can't just pass on cards if we want to get around this castle, right?" Sora asked.

"I guess…" Luigi said. Sora looked down to see a golden card and picked it up. As predicted, Bowser and Luigi vanished.

"We should keep moving forward," Tippi said. "Hopefully we'll arrive at another room they can be in soon."

"Right." Sora raised the card in front of the door and watched as the door glowed like the others at Castle Oblivion. He pushed on it before arriving in the house. Inside of which were Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie.

Behind Sora, Luigi and Bowser reappeared once more. "Hey look, everyone's here," Luigi said. "Well, everybody besides Cid."

"Hey Aerith, have you forgotten me too?" Sora asked her.

Aerith nodded and smiled sadly. "I don't know whether to say 'Nice to meet you' or 'Good to see you again.' I don't think I know you, but I still feel like you belong here."

"Yeah, exactly!" Yuffie said. "Like we've never met before, but it still doesn't feel weird knowing your name."

Sora fought back a groan. "But I'm telling you we have met. We took on the Heartless together! We were a team."

"It feels like you're right…" Leon shook his head. "But I can't remember."

"Then I guess you won't remember what you told me. In Hollow Bastion, when I sealed the Keyhole: 'We may never meet again…'"

"…but we'll never forget each other." Leon finished the statement before Sora could.

"See, you do remember!" Sora said. Tippi sighed.

"He's right, Leon! I remember you saying that too," Yuffie said.

"I guess I can't write it off as a coincidence then," Leon said.

"I don't have any memory of it," Aerith said, "but somehow I think I still remember. I think your heart is doing the remembering for us."

Sora looked at her confused. "My…heart?"

"We don't know you guys at all, but your hearts are full of memories of us together," Aerith said. "Those memories must resonate in our hearts too. Maybe they tell us things we couldn't otherwise know."

"So that's why…" Tippi mumbled. It had all made sense now, her heart resonated with those who knew of her world before, triggering the memories that had truly begun to return to her.

"Why what?" Luigi asked.

"It doesn't really matter," Tippi said. "Do you guys know why the memories are expressing themselves then, or maybe why you forgot in the first place?"

"I believe it's because Sora has powerful memories that are swaying our hearts to remember," Aerith said.

"Maybe it's like that guys said then," Sora said. "This town is just an illusion, something that my memories created."

"And…there's somebody special to you in this town?" Aerith asked.

"How did you-" he stopped, realizing the answer itself. "Ah I get it. My memories are resonating with yours, telling you what happened." He nodded. "Yeah. A friend of mine is somewhere in this town, I mean Castle Oblivion."

"Castle Oblivion? What's that?" Yuffie looked at Sora as though he had sprouted a second head. "There aren't any castles in here."

"That's not quite what I mean." Sora rubbed the back of his head slightly.

"You're still not sure what's going on yourself, right?" Aerith asked.

"Right," Tippi said. "We're still trying to figure out what's going on ourselves."

"Well, we're not gonna figure out this place's mystery by just standing around," Bowser said. "Let's get going already. These explanations are just plain confusing me."

Leon shrugged. "Then go for a walk around town," he suggested. "There are Heartless, but that's no problem for you."

"So you know I can fight?" Sora asked.

"I can't say I know, but I believe you," Leon said. "Let's just leave it at that."

"Well, thanks," Sora said with a smile and walked out of the room back into the third district. As soon as he left, Luigi and Bowser vanished once more, replaced by another card.

"We have one more door to check I guess," Tippi said. She flew over to the card and picked it up. "The door to the second district, right?"

"Well, if that's where this leads." Sora grabbed the card and walked over to the door before lifting up the card. The door glowed and let him through.

Behind him, Bowser and Luigi reappeared once more. "This is just getting annoying!"

"Sorry, I can't control it," Sora said with a sigh. Bowser just crossed his arms in response.

"Well whaddaya know?" Cid approached the four. "It's Sora!"

"You remember?" Sora asked in surprise.

"Remember? What? No, you just look like a Sora with the spiky hair and baggy pants. That is your name, right?" Cid asked.

"Yeah, Cid, that's my name," Sora said.

"So! You've heard of me?" Cid started smiling with pride that Sora knew who he was. "Well I can't say as I'm surprised."

"Anyways…" Sora decided to change the subject. "A friend of mine's supposed to be somewhere in here. Do you have any ideas?"

"Your friend, huh?" Cid asked. "Lately all this town sees is Heartless. Can't even take two steps without gettin' attacked. In fact, this plaza's the worst. Word is, a jumbo-sized Heartless shows up when that bell rings. If you value your hide, you'll get outta here while the gettin's good." He left the second district.

"A Heartless, huh?" Sora asked. "Didn't the Keyhole appear when the bell rang last time?"

"Yes, and we fought O'Chunks," Tippi said. "I bet it's one of the ways Castle Oblivion has changed it…"

"We should find out what it is then," Sora said.

"Are you kidding? We should leave before the Heartless attacks!" Bowser said. "It's not like anybody's really here, nobody will die if we don't kill it."

"Don't you want to see the Heartless though?" Sora asked.

"Not really," Luigi said.

"Well I-" interrupting Sora's phrase was the sound of a ringing bell. He summoned the Keyblade to his hands as Bowser and Luigi vanished once more.

"Be careful, Sora," Tippi said. The Heartless landed on the ground in front of Sora, a very familiar Heartless.

"Guard Armor!" Sora realized, remembering the fight as the first time he'd fought alongside his new friends.

"I'll scan again," Tippi said. "That's a Guard Armor Heartless. It's made of six individual segments that can all attack at once. If you take out the arms and legs, its head will be left defenseless."

"That's right, I remember this thing." Sora ran at the Heartless, attacking the arms like he did the first time he fought it. This time, however, the Heartless instead started stomping him with its feet, causing him to stop his attack and run backwards. "I don't think Peach's idea from last time will works."

"Considering you're three people less, that isn't really a surprise…" Tippi sighed. "Try going after him from a distance while he's attacking."

"Worth a try." Sora pointed his Keyblade at the Guard Armor's feet. "Fire!" A fireball flew out the tip of the Keyblade, causing the feet to light on fire momentarily before the fire disappeared. He rolled out of the way of an attack from the arms before using fire once more on the feet, dealing more damage and causing the left foot to disappear. "Hey Tippi, good idea."

"Thanks, but you're not clear yet," Tippi said and he turned around only to get clawed at by the arms of the Heartless. He recoiled back before pulling out a Luigi card.

"Luigi!"

"This thing again?" Luigi asked. "Well, so long as I'm here I got the leg."

"Thanks." Sora charged at the arms while he watched Luigi start sending green fireballs at the remaining foot. He seemed to be doing alright, so Sora concentrated on the arms once more and slashed at it with his Keyblade, the arms retaliated by trying to claw at him, but he raised his Keyblade and forced it back before throwing it at the left arm, causing it to disappear. He resummoned his Keyblade and looked for Luigi, who had vanished along with the remaining foot.

"One more part to go." This one he could handle. He started slicing at the clawed hand while it tried and failed to get a hit on him. Within five slashes of the Keyblade, the hand arm was gone, leaving just the torso and the head. The torso started to spin around rapidly, causing Sora to run out of the way before it fell over, the head on the floor. All it took were a couple of hits to the head and the Heartless vanished, leaving behind a pink crystal heart.

"Nice job," Tippi said.

"Thanks." He nodded. It wasn't too bad to defeat it, although still not as easy as the first time.

"So, was your friend here?" He turned around to see Yuffie, Aerith, Leon, and Cid.

"No, I don't think I'll find him in this town." Sora shook his head. "But he's somewhere in this castle, I know it."

"Castle? Like this whole town is in a humongous castle?" Cid seemed skeptical of the idea.

"He's probably right, Cid," Leon said. "We may not understand what's going on, but Sora does. He can see that reality is bigger than this world."

"I wish I was that sure," Sora said with a sigh.

"You'll be okay, Sora. No matter what shape reality takes, you can handle it. I may not remember you, but I know you in my heart."

Leon did have a point. "Leon…"

"Take care, Sora." Yuffie waved to him.

"I'm just a little lost…but best of luck anyways." With Cid's final comment, the four Traverse Town residents left, leaving Sora behind them.

"We should get moving if we want to figure out the secrets of this castle," Luigi said.

"Yeah, make way for the Koopa King!" Bowser and Luigi went to find the exit to the Traverse Town room, leaving Sora and Tippi behind.

"We should follow them." As Tippi went to get going, Sora stopped her.

"Hang on a second." He pointed to Aerith "What's up?"

"I don't have all the answers, but I had to tell you something," Aerith said. "Your memories created this town, right?"

Sora shrugged. "That's what the guy who gave me the card said."

"If that's true, then this town is just a figment of your imagination…and so are we…"

"But…you can't be a figment! You're standing right here. This town is here too!" Sora looked at Aerith in shock.

"Sora, she might be right," Tippi said. "Can you explain?"

"I'm not really me," Aerith said. "I don't remember the things I should. And I sense things I shouldn't. Sora, beware your memories. In the journey to come, you'll be faced with more illusions. Sometimes the shadows of your memory will deceive you, try to lead you astray."

"So, uh…what does that mean?" Sora asked.

"I'm sorry. I'm just another illusion. The truth is out of my reach." Aerith looked down, upset that she couldn't help them more.

"Don't say stuff like that, it's depressing," Sora said,

"Stay strong, Sora." Aerith gave him one last bit of advice. "Don't let the illusions distract you from what's truly important."

_Illusions…distract me?_  Sora looked over at Tippi in confusion, but she didn't know much more about this than he did and simply gave him a confused look in response. "…Okay…"

"Sora!" He turned around to see Bowser and Luigi, staring at him impatiently. "Are you ready to go yet?"

"Yeah, just a second." He turned back to Aerith. "Well I'd better be going-Aerith?" She was gone, just him and Tippi stood there.

"She vanished the moment you looked away." Tippi tried to explain it, but she was slightly worried. Aerith, even if she was an illusion as she said, shouldn't have just randomly vanished.

"What about Aerith?" Luigi asked.

"I was just talking to her," Sora said.

"Aerith left with Leon and the others," Bowser said. "We just figured you wanted to talk with Tippi or something."

"Is this what she meant…" Sora wondered aloud.

"I don't know, but we'll have to be more careful about this in the future if that's the case," Tippi said. She hung back a second or two after Sora left. "I wonder…" She shook her head. She could figure out if the castle had something to do with the feeling later and for now, she just had to believe that Riku, Mario, and Blumiere were in the castle like the others did. She flew after them.


	4. Chapter 4

Following their exit to Traverse Town, the four found themselves back within the white halls of Castle Oblivion.

"I can't say I'm surprised," Tippi said. "Which means the town really was made of your memories Sora…"

Sora frowned. "So Aerith was right…"

"We already told you, Aerith wasn't there, so stop bringing it up." Bowser glared at Sora.

"Hey, sorry, geez." Sora looked to Luigi and Tippi for help.

"Forget about it for now, we can deal with it later so long as we remember her warning." Tippi reasoned.

"Well, Sora? Did you enjoy meeting with your memories?" The four looked in front of them, standing in front of the next door was the same cloaked figure from before.

"Yeah, it was good to see everyone again." Sora nodded, trying to ignore the fact that they were actually fake despite being there. "But why show me an illusion? What do you really want from me?"

"What do you have to give?" The figure walked towards Sora, causing him to summon his weapons and Bowser and Luigi to enter into a fighting position.

Before the battle could start, another voice spoke. "Boo." The voice's owner was a red head with incredibly spiky hair and bright green eyes. Underneath those eyes were two tear drop tattoos. Like the figure, he wore the same black cloak.

"What do you want?" the figure asked, its eyes narrowed.

"No hogging the hero." The man waved his finger in false disappointment and scolding.

"The perhaps you'd like to test him?"

"Perhaps I would." With the red haired man's words, the cloaked figure vanished.

"My show now, Keyblade Master." He smirked.

"Who are you?" Sora asked.

"Me? Oh, my name's Axel. Got it memorized?" He pointed to his head with his finger as he said it.

"Uh…sure..?" Sora looked at the red head in confusion.

Axel looked happy at that, or at least moderately proud that he'd managed to make a good enough impression on Sora for his name to be remembered. "Good, you're a quick learner. So Sora, now that we're getting to know each other better…" He summoned two silver chakrams with red spiked tips, "don't you go off and die on me now!"

"So much for friendly," Sora said and got into a fighting stance. 'Tippi?"

"That's Axel, a fire wielding man with an attitude. He fights using his chakrams and fire, but so long as you have Luigi and Bowser on your side, you should be alright so long as he doesn't try to set you on fire."

"Set him on fire, I like that idea." Axel surrounded the area with a wall of flames and ran at Sora with his chakrams. Sora lifted up his Keyblade and forced Axel back, right into a flood of flames from Bowser.

"Yeah!" Bowser laughed only to need to duck into his shell moments later as Axel attacked him with his chakrams.

"What a great idea," he remarked with sarcasm. "Set the pyro on fire, what a great solution."

"How about ice then?" Sora sent a ball of ice at Axel, which he jumped out of the way of and in front of Luigi, who punched him and caused him to jump back, the attack barely missing. He turned around to see Sora with his Keyblade running at him. He stepped to the side, but not quickly enough to avoid the Keyblade's slash. The hit knocked Axel backwards and into Bowser's waiting claws. The claws raked his side once before he pulled up his chakram and blocked it, forcing Bowser back. He threw his chakrams in different directions, one at Bowser and one at Luigi, both of them hitting their targets and returning to his hands moments later.

"Now that they're out of the way…" He ran at Sora, who lifted up his Keyblade to block, blocking one successfully and being hit by the other. He cringed, but pushed back on Axel so the man fell backwards once more.

"Freeze!" This time, the ice magic hit its target, knocking him down to the ground as he disappeared in a cloud of darkness.

"That was too easy…" Sora said. He looked around for a few minutes, attempting to figure out where Axel may have gone. He couldn't have just disappeared, right?

"Who cares if it was easy, let's just go." Bowser grumbled.

Sora walked over to wear Axel stood and looked down to see another card in his place. "Hey, another card."

"Another one?" Luigi asked. "What's it do?"

Tippi flew above them both to get a look at it. "It's like the one that you used to summon Traverse Town back there."

"Then I guess we need to keep going," Sora said.

"That's right." There was no way it was possible, but standing by the entrance to the next room of the castle was Axel, leaning against the wall casually as though the fight had never happened.

"Axel?"

"Did you really think after that introduction I would give up oh so easy?" He approached them with a mocking glance.

"You were testing us," Sora said.

"And you passed." Cue the sarcastic slow clap. "Congratulations, Sora! You're ready now—ready to take on Castle Oblivion. You will need to follow your memories. Trust what you remember and seek what you forget. Then you will find someone very special."

"You mean Riku, Mario, and Blumiere?" Tippi asked.

"You will just have to give some more though to who it is that's most important to you," Axel said. "Our most precious memories lie so deep inside our hearts that they are out of our reach. But I'm sure you can find yours Sora."

Tippi might have flown at him and strangled him for his nonanswer if Sora hadn't spoken up. "Why me?"

"You have lost sight of the light within the darkness. And it seems you've forgotten what you forgot."

"The light within the darkness…"  _Does he mean Kairi? I haven't forgotten her though…_  Sora shook his head. Axel hadn't made any sense. His memories of Kairi were right there, and they always would be. He couldn't forget her.

"Would you like me to give you a hint?" Axel taunted him. He reached out his hand, almost as though offering guidance to help the boy figure out his memories after all.

"Are you really gonna need that hint Sora?" Bowser asked.

"No, I'm gonna figure it out on my own." Sora shook his head. "If you're in my way—"

"Don't worry Sora, we've got your back." Luigi jumped in between Sora and Axel.

"Good answer, just what I'd expect from the Keyblade Master." Axel snickered. "But be forewarned…when your sleeping memories awaken you may no longer be who you are."

Axel disappeared into a dark portal and vanished, leaving behind more of the cards.

"That…" Tippi sighed.

"You okay Tippi?" Sora asked, slightly concerned.

"Some of the things Axel said just…" Tippi turned away. "Sora, you're not worried? We don't remember who's most important to us? You may not be who you are? How can you not be worried?"

"Well, I'm not sure about that because I'm pretty sure Riku and Kairi are most important to me, Mario and Peach are most important to Luigi and Bowser, and Blumiere's most important to you, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. If they we don't remember them, they can't be that important, right?" Sora smiled. There wasn't a chance he'd ever forget who Kairi was. She was far too important to him. "And me not being me, who else can I be?"

"I guess…" Tippi sighed. "I wish I was as confident about this as you are…we just have to be careful."

"You're worried you'll lose your memories again, right?" Sora asked. "Or that you might still be missing some?"

"It's not that…well maybe, but…" Tippi couldn't figure out how to explain the bad feeling she got in the castle, and from Axel and the cloaked figure. Everything felt off to her, and all this talk of memories wasn't helping matters. "Just be careful, okay?"

"We'll be okay," Sora said. "Whatever they throw at us, we'll be able to face it together!"

"Like when we were travelling with Blumiere through his castle," Luigi said.

"When did we do that?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, I don't remember traveling with him in a castle," Bowser said.

"But I'm sure of it," Luigi said. "In the castle he renamed Castle Bleck and took over. It was Hollow…something or other…"

"Are you sure you aren't making that up?" Bowser looked at him skeptically. "I don't remember us going through that. You two?"

"I was asleep when you first travelled with Blumiere," Tippi said.

"I don't remember that at all…" Sora shook his head.

"No, it definitely happened!" Luigi insisted.

"It doesn't matter whether it happened or not right now." Tippi interrupted them before anybody could argue. "What matters is why do you remember something that we don't? Are you remembering true memories, or are we forgetting?" The group was silent, trying to find the memories that they may have already lost, and figure out if that was the case.

"I guess we'll find out if we keep going." Sora raised a card to the door and it glowed. "Let's keep moving." It was the only choice they really had.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and onward was written much later than the initial four. So plans changed a lot, basically.

The light faded moments after Sora entered into the door, leading him into a bright and colorful world looking to be rather pixelated. It was an odd look, and he couldn't help but shake the feeling of having been there before. "Bowser, Luigi, do y—" He sighed. Right. His friends were only around when he held their cards. "Tippi? Any idea where we are?"

"No, I don't think so…" The hesitance in her voice showed that she thought they might have been here before too. "But if this castle messes with memories, then we might have been here once before."

Sora sighed. "Right…in that case, let's—"

Tippi let out a gasp as she saw a pink and sticky object come flying out at her, barely managing to dodge in time to avoid. She wasn't really sure how she managed to tell it was coming. Maybe another past memory? Or maybe her scans had subconsciously clued her in. "What…?"

"I missed?" Appearing behind her was some kind of nerdy chameleon. "Nerr herr herr, that's fine, I don't need any butterflies, I'll just go play with the anime boy instead." And with that, the chameleon was gone, leaving the duo more than a little confused.

"Okay…" Sora stared for a moment. "Any idea what that was about?"

"Not really?" Tippi was definitely just as unsure as Sora as she landed on his hair. For now the best thing we can do is explore this world, maybe we can find out more about it, or the castle.

Sora nodded in response. "Right, and we have to save the anime boy…whoever that is. Come on, let's go!" And with that they started across the pixelated plains and to a door. Sora reached into his pocket pulling out a red card, raising it up to the door and allowing the room to take form before entering inside.

Passing through the door changed the scenery entirely, rather than plains, the two found themselves facing a beautiful blue expanse of water, or what appeared to be water. Surprisingly, he could breathe in it, that was nice.

Unsurprisingly, in the water Heartless were a plenty. Sora summoned his Keyblade, watching as the familiar set of blue cards appeared on his Keychain. "Tippi, let me know when I'm running low, okay?"

"Right." Sora slashed at the odd fish-like Heartless, a card disappearing right off his Keyblade, but thankfully not a wasted one as the blade connected with it, causing it to dissipate into smoke as well. He spun around, using another card to strike at another one of the Heartless, but before it did, the attack stopped, not even damaging the target. "What?"

"I don't know. Maybe something that guy in the cloak didn't explain?" Tippi watched as one of the cards for Bowser and Luigi lit up. "Maybe they can help?" Sora nodded, summoning out Luigi.

"Thanks Sora, being in that card sucked." Luigi punched the Heartless with a lightning charged punch, watching as it disappeared into a puff of shadow, releasing it's false heart once more. With that only one enemy remained, a squid, who turned tail and fled upon seeing their power, dropping a card. The moment the card dropped, causing Luigi and Bowser to finally reappear.

"It's about time." Bowser growled, looking around the area in a kind of stupefied shock. "Where are we? Why did we have to be someplace that looks like this." He crossed his arms, grumpily looking around. "Can't this card have taken us somewhere else."

"Nope." Sora grinned. "What's got you so upset anyways?"

"This place just reminds me of badtimes." Sora decided better not to ask the Koopa king at the moment, instead choosing to look at the gold card he'd managed to pick up.

"Well, ready to go?" He asked the duo. Luigi nodded, Bowser continued to complain about losses at this place. Sora chose to ignore that and instead lifted the card up high to open the door, allowing him out into the next area of the world.

The fact that the next room had a tree that the three of them had to climb left the entire group groaning.

* * *

 

Several more rooms later though the sea and eventually a tall tree, Sora had finally managed to find another gold card. Leaving the tree behind them they finally arrived into a strange kitty castle. Something about the place left an uncomfortable feeling in the Keybearers gut, and something told him his companions felt the same.

"Why does he get a nice castle like that." Bowser complained upon seeing it, giving everybody in the group a sense of déjà vu.

"Now's not the time to be jealous, we have to infiltrate the castle to see what's going on…well…Sora and Tippi do." Luigi looked towards the two of them, and Sora had to admit that he didn't hate the rules of Castle Oblivion more than in that moment. It was taking his two most trusted allies from him. He approached the entry to the castle.

"Sora, be careful." Tippi warned him.

He looked to his partners, before opening the door into the castle. "Don't worry, Tippi. I'll be careful."

Entering into the room again, Sora came across an even stranger site than the kitty palace exterior. Inside was an entire castle filled with anime merchandise as far as the eye could see. Posters, action figures, anything that would be considered nerd memorabilia was here on display proudly, almost as though the resident of the castle was proud of it. Robot cats dressed as maids patrolled the halls. Something about the entire place just made anybody who entered feel unhappy. "Hello?"

"Intruder detected. Meow! Do you have Master Francis's memories?" Sora blinked. Who's memories.

"Uhhh…" This confused him. The chameleon had to be Francis, and his memories weren't intact? What in the world did that even mean. "No?"

"Lier! Prepare to be sent to the dungeon!" The cat turned a bright red color, and Sora rolled out of the way just in time to avoid the floor from falling apart beneath his feet. He hit the robot, watching it explode before turning to Tippi.

"Let's get through all this before it happens again." He approached the giant door in the center.

"Meow! Only anime protagonists and totally hot babes allowed!" The door let out a robotic sounding voice, surprising the heroes. "Please answer the following questions." They waited a moment for the questions to come, but they never did.

"Error in memory banks. No questions can be located that answers might please Master Francis. Please step inside." The door opened, allowing Tippi and Sora within, with Bowser and Luigi appearing beside him moments later. Inside the room was indeed the nerdy chameleon who tried to kidnap Tippi alongside a boy who couldn't have been much younger than Sora.

"I already told you, I don't know anything about who you are. Please let me go." The boy pleaded, pushing at the bars of the cage he was held captive in.

The chameleon seemed to be ignoring him. "But you have to know what happened. You're a boy like on all those posters. The only thing that might've helped would've been a butterfly."

"Give me a break, you really think that kid had something to do with your memory?" Bowser asked before realizing what he did moments later. He covered his mouth, but the damage was done as Francis's attention was now brought towards the four.

"You, you must be the memory thieves. Just like I predicted based on your butterfly." Francis pointed at them. The group shared a glance in confusion.

"Uh…no you didn't." Sora pointed out.

"Oh, well you're all the memory thieves!" Francis decreed. "Return my memory to me butterfly and anime boy or face me and my helper in battle."

Sora summoned his Keyblade, seeing as he didn't have any memories. "Battle it is!"

Bowser and Luigi immediately disappeared, leaving only Sora and Tippi remaining. Sora jumped to the right, dodging Francis's tongue before turning to Tippi. "Can you scan."

Tippi focused on Francis, allowing the information to come to her. "That's Francis, a nerdy, annoying chameleon with a butterfly and anime obsession. Avoid his tongue and this battle should be no issue to you."

She stopped her scan before letting out a startled noise. "Sora! Look out!" Sora ducked out of the way of another attack, this one seeming to come from a completely different enemy.

"What was that?"

"Another Heartless. Allow me to make him visible." The air shimmered for a moment, revealing a gray chameleon. "That's Void Lizard, a Heartless that tends to run and hide rather than actually fight. They can be a challenge, so be prepared. You'll have to take both it and Francis out to win this fight."

Sora nodded and relegated Tippi to card watch as he charged at Francis, hitting him with the Keyblade before jumping out of the way of the Void Lizard and its attack as it lunged at Sora. He raised his Keyblade to block another tongue attack, but was interrupted before getting hit by the Void Lizard. "Ow!" He needed help. Two enemies on one wasn't really fair, but without his friends…

He was about to get hit again when a spikey barrier popped up around him, the kid behind bars waving at Sora. "I'll keep you safe!" He gave an appreciative smile towards the boy before striking at the Heartless, deciding for now he'd focus on the more dangerous of the two. The Keyblade hit its mark, knocking the Void Lizard back a few feet. He raised his Keyblade again, hitting the Void Lizard once more with a slash on the side.

"Sora! Your Keyblade's almost gone!" Tippi called out, and true to the Pixl's words, his Keyblade was down to only a couple of cards. The Blizzard spell he'd used on Axel and another strike. He watched as the kid put another shield around him, trying to figure out a plan. He couldn't afford the Keyblade going away while there was still two enemies, but if he kept his focus on Void Lizard he might be in even more danger. Sora reached into his pocket, and seeing the Bowser card active, he summoned Bowser out.

"About time you brought me out." Bowser grumbled. "Who am I killing?"

"Keep Francis busy." Sora nodded to the turtle, watching him go after Francis with a burst of flames. With his attention able to be focused on Void Lizard, Sora slashed at him once more before sending a blast of ice right at him. The lizard fell instantly, releasing a glowing light and bright pink crystal heart as it vanished.

One down, one to go. Sora turned his attention over to Francis, who was thankfully still being kept busy by Bowser and his fire. He went to slice, but found the Keyblade wouldn't come to his hand. Right. He had to wait a couple of seconds. He raised his hand, bringing out the Keyblade once more. It was just in time too as a barrier surrounded Sora thanks to the kid in the cage, allowing him to endure an attack from Francis now that Bowser was gone. He slashed at Francis in rapid succession, and his Keyblade lit up, allowing him to perform strike raid and deal more damage than previously before Francis too fell to the ground, defeated.

"Ow, that was mean!" The chameleon protested. Before he went to go stand up for round two, he stopped, blinking. "That's…hey, I remember my memory!" He then seemed to realize that the Keybearer was still there, because he ran away. Bowser and Luigi vanished moments later.

"Nice job Sora!" Luigi cheered for his friend.

"Hey, I helped too." Bowser grumbled, causing him to get congratulations from the younger brother as well. Sora meanwhile raised his Keyblade and pointed it at the cage, unlocking the lock and letting the boy go free.

"Thank you for saving me." The boy smiled at Sora.

"Don't mention it, I'm Sora!"

"I'm Barry." He nodded to Sora, handing him a card. "If you ever need any assistance, don't be afraid to call upon me in the future. It's the least I can do for saving me from Francis."

"Don't mention it, glad we could help." Sora grinned. He watched as the boy went through the door, blinking in shock before remembering that like when he was in Traverse Town, this world was probably an illusion to, and so was the boy. Still, the card was real, and that was helpful.

Speaking of card, there was one final one left on the floor of the castle. Sora looked over the card, recognizing it as the same kind that let them out of Traverse Town earlier. "Time to keep moving." He raised the card to the door and exited it, ready to see where the castle would lead them next.


	6. Chapter 6

As the group exited the Bitlands back to the familiar, blinding white halls of Castle Oblivion, they expected to see another cloaked figure, but were surprised to find them empty of all life besides themselves entirely.

"I guess we just keep going?" Sora suggested. Tippi, who was sitting on Sora's head, and Bowser started to follow, but before they could even reach the end of the hall, Luigi stopped, not moving. "Luigi?"

"Sorry, Sora, I just can't stop thinking about that castle…" The man in green was interrupted from his thoughts as he looked over to Sora. "It's confusing, why do I remember something none of the rest of you do?"

"You're probably just imagining things, or maybe you're just confusing it for one of the dozens of other times you visited my awesome castle." Bowser let out a laugh at that thought, but it didn't placate Luigi's wonders or the now confusion of Sora and Tippi.

"It's not that, Bowser. I just know it has to be real." Luigi decided, prompting confused glances from Sora and Bowser. "Because the more I think about it, the more I realize that it was the place where Sora sacrificed himself for Kairi! Because by that point Blumiere was on our side."

"Right, I remember that." Tippi's voice echoed through the halls at the weight of how they had all forgotten. "I remember waking up and traveling with all of you, and I remember you telling me on the lift what happened…"

"Right, and we were all super worried about Sora." Luigi nodded in agreement.

Sora's eyes widened, and he pounded his fist into his hand as he suddenly remembered. "That's right, when I became a Heartless…" His voice trailed off as he realized why he hadn't thought of it. "That happened in a castle?"

"Of course it did." Bowser laughed, as though he hadn't forgotten. "I knew it the whole time. I was just testing your memory by pretending to forget."

"So what's that castle's name then if you do remember?" Sora crossed his arms, laughing with Tippi as they listened to Bowser flounder for an answer.

"Alright fine, so maybe my memories aren't perfect either, but it's not like you two remember." He let out a growl in frustration and like Sora, crossed his arms, though rather out of annoyance that he was being made fun of than simply because he was.

"We don't have to." Tippi started to glow. "As a knowledge Pixl, everything I learn about is automatically placed in a database within the body, it's how I manage to scan things so quickly. All we have to…do…is…" Her voice trailed off as she stopped glowing.

"Tippi?"

"It's not there…" Tippi seemed almost in shock for a moment before finally snapping out of it. "The database, everything I saw during our first adventure isn't stored at all. I don't understand…I'm the only one able to access the records, there's no way anybody should've…"

"So somehow, somebody messed with this database?" Sora shook his head. It didn't make any sense. How could anybody mess with something they weren't even around to come in contact with. "Is it possible that when you became a human for a bit it might've caused a faulty transfer?"

"It's possible, but…" Tippi didn't need to answer for the group to understand what was going on. She suspected that the castle, perhaps those cloaked figures, had something to do with it. "Never mind, when we see another member of that cloaked figure cult I'm demanding my database back. That's that." She didn't mention the real reason she was upset, and she didn't have to. Without the database, there was no guarantee in place that she wouldn't lose her memories once more, and that was a risk she couldn't afford to take.

The started up the stairs to the next entry hall, but before they could open the door, they stopped once more. "You don't think Tippi losing her database might have something to do with us experiencing problems with our memories, do you?" Right as Luigi asked the question, it gave everybody pause.

"You mean like how nobody but you seems to have memories of this odd castle." When Luigi nodded, Bowser took it as an opportunity to continue. "And you really think that those memories just happened to be stored in Tippi's databases? How would we even have access to them in that case?"

"I think he's right." Sora decided, stopping Bowser and Luigi before they could actually debate it. "Not quite in the same sense, but the loss of the database, the missing memories of the castle. It might not just be us having a hard time remembering…I think us traveling through the castle is actually causing us to lose some of our memories."

"To find is to lose…to lose is to find…" Tippi quoted the hooded figure from earlier, recalling the phrases used in the introduction of the castle. "He wasn't talking about us finding people, he was talking about us losing memories…and finding them…"

"But how would we even find memories?" Bowser wasn't exactly convinced by all of this. "If we're finding memories wouldn't we just be finding the ones we lost."

"I'm not really sure, maybe it's not even talking about finding memories, but…" Sora frowned. "The higher we go up, the more memories we'll lose…This place really is Castle Oblivion."

"So if we keep going up, we might even forget why we're here? We'll forget we were searching for Riku, Blumiere, and my bro?" Luigi frowned. Sora did too and he watched as Tippi's flutters grew slightly less energetic. The idea of losing the memories of the people they'd traveled through and risked their memories for was as unappealing as they came.

"We could forget Kairi and Peach too…" The idea of forgetting his best friends and the friends he'd made along the way was disheartening. As it was, he had no idea if he'd met any of the people in the last world before. He remembered Aerith, Leon, Yuffie, and Cid so maybe he hadn't, but the what if wasn't a tempting idea either.

"Maybe…Maybe we should just leave?" Tippi suggested, her voice quiet. "Even if the three of them are here now, they'll manage to get out of the castle, just like us. When they do, then we can find them, and at the very least our memories will be safe…" The idea of forgetting Blumiere seemed almost too much for her to bare after everything she had been through, and the fear of what it might do to him didn't help matters either.

"Why are we so up in arms over a few lost memories anyways?" Surprisingly, it was Bowser who broke the silence. "You're all worrying about what ifs, but I know I'm not going to forget Peach, so why are all of you suddenly so sure you'll forget people you care about. Maybe we'll forget some things, but like Sora said earlier, we're not all about to forget anything or anybody important."

"How are you so sure?" Luigi asked, skeptical over the sudden burst of optimism from Bowser of all people.

"Well, do you think you'd suddenly think you're an only child?" Bowser pointed out, to which Luigi answered a very mumbled no in response. "And it's not like we haven't seen somebody retain their memories against all odds before." He proceeded to point to Sora.

Sora looked at him in confusion. "Me, when did I do that?"

Tippi registered it first, realizing what Bowser was saying. "When you turned into a Heartless, remember? You didn't attack any of us."

"Oh yeah, I couldn't forget you guys no matter what." He grinned, it was kind of a surprise to realize he was grinning at the time he became a Heartless, but it provided something surprising. It provided hope.

"See what I mean? So will all of you stop moping and just acknowledge that any important memories we have are safe." Bowser grinned.

"You're right. Thanks, Bowser." Sora gave a nod to the giant turtle before turning back to the door. "There's nothing that can make us forget each other or our friends, so whatever we come across, it won't matter so long as at the end of it we find Mario, Blumiere, and Riku."

"Yeah, Sora's right!" Luigi grinned. "We'll find my Big Bro and he'll help us get back any missing memories for sure."

Tippi didn't join in the celebration, but even her voice sounded slightly less worried when she finally spoke up. "I guess you're right…I doubt I'll ever be able to forget Blumiere or any of you three. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't forget the three of you anyways."

"Thanks—" After a moment, it registered in Sora's head what she meant by that. "Hey!"

She let out a small laugh, though still not fully calm. "Are we ready to progress?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah." He raised another of the world cards up to the door, watching it glow as the next world for them to travel through unlocked. "Let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

Sora looked around the room in surprise as his eyes took in the massive stadium in front of him. "Is it just me or does this world seem a lot bigger than the last time we were here." He remembered from the first time around that the stadium had been far from small, having partaken in the fights himself, but this seemed like a whole

"It's not just you, Sora. Bowser and I have been to this world dozens of times. It's definitely changed a lot since all of the Smash tournaments." Luigi paused in thought. "Wait, Castle Oblivion. The stadium's still just an illusion."

"Oh yeah, right." Sora grinned sheepishly. "So if the tournament's in the castle, do you think it'll mean we won't have to just use random cards t—"

"Hey, stop being so slow and come over here." Sora and Luigi stopped their talking as they ran to catch up to Bowser and Tippi, who were looking at a sign close to the entrance of the stadium. "It's advertising some kind of new event. Something called Smash Run."

"Smash Run?" Sora grinned. "Sounds like fun, you guys wanna give it a try?"

"I don't think we'll have a choice if we want to keep going through the castle." Tippi pointed out. Realizing that, Sora went to the registration booth.

The man at the booth almost seemed disinterested as he played with the microphone attached to the glass window, separating him from Sora and the rest of his party. "Can I help you?"

Sora nodded. "We'd like to register for the Smash Run tournament." And it wasn't long before they got their registration, a golden card much like the rest with the picture of a dark blue key. "Thanks, now come on guys, let's—" He stopped himself, looking over at the door.

"They vanished while you were getting us registered." If Sora was annoyed by the disappearing and reappearing act that the rest of their party was going through, Tippi had to have been more so, judging by the hint of anger in her tone. How many more floors were they going to have to deal with this sort of thing whenever they just wanted to travel?

Sora just rubbed the back of his head, for now, the best he could do was press onwards. "Right, let's go." Approaching the entrance to the arena, he raised the golden card, teleporting inside into an almost maze like area, filled with all sorts of terrain from forests to ruins to what looked like ice caves. It was almost surreal.

"Is this place even something inside the actual Smash Arena?" Sora asked. Tippi, having no answer, was almost as much at a loss for words. There was no way anything like this existed.

" _You have one hour to kill as many enemies as possible."_  As though summoned by his questioning, an announcement rang out over the entire maze, likely from Master Hand.  _"After you have defeated the enemies, the maze will be replaced, and you will fight any other competitors in the arena. Good luck, Smashers."_

The voice went silent, and an alarm rang, signifying the battle's beginning. Immediately, Sora looked around the room, noticing that it was empty aside from the four doors surrounding each wall of the room. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a green card. "Ready Tippi?"

"Not much of a point in asking me since I can't fight in this form, but let's go." With his friend's approval, Sora raised the card, walking into the door on the ruins side into a much larger room, with tall columns, floating platforms, and a cave like ceiling and floor. And the moment he saw the first Heartless, he swung his Keyblade, beginning the battle.

* * *

 

"It's nearly been an hour." Tippi watched as Sora swung at the last Soldier in the cave like room he'd created. "We've only got one last room, so make it count."

"Right." Sora looked at the red card in his hand. "Bottomless Darkness?" There was no picture on it, so maybe that meant it was an easy room? He raised the card up to the door, watching as it glowed and opened up, just like all the other ones had previously. He entered within, finding the new room to be pitch black and filled with an endless swarm of glowing yellow eyes.

Yellow eyes that Sora met with his own wide ones nearly in terror. "Never mind I don't like this card can we go back!"

"Come on Sora, we have to take out as many enemies as possible, remember?" As she pointed it out, Sora sighed, knowing that she was correct as he summoned his Keyblade, watching as the familiar card count appeared on the Keychain. He started swinging blindly, not really knowing what else to do as shadow claw after shadow claw hit the Keyblade, letting out a loud clang as they swiped at the metal.

"Behind you!" He swung around at the Pixl's, his blade connecting with the Shadow, causing Bowser's card to light up in Sora's pocket.

Sora raised the card up, hoping to use the time Bowser bought him to replenish his cards. "Bowser, I need you to take out some Heartless."

"I can tell that much. How do you even get this surrounded anyways. Are you that bad at fighting?" Sora would've replied sarcastically, but he needed to focus. He watched as Bowser's fiery breath rained down upon the Heartless, causing them to meet their demise in a field of flames and leaving a momentary reprieve for Sora before more of the Shadows showed up. He swung his Keyblade, knocking into some more Heartless, but before he could keep the onslaught going, the Heartless stopped moving.

" _Time is up. It is time to begin the next component."_

The dark room fell away around Sora, causing him to return to the arena's natural state. Had he never really been in the maze. Above his head, Sora noticed a bright name, showing his stats, although the pictures made very little sense. Much to his surprise, in front of him stood a blond teen with spikey hair, though more side swept than Sora's, and a dark outfit. He narrowed his eyes as he pulled out a long sword. "Don't take this personally. My only goal here is to meet the host of this tournament, which I can only do by winning."

"Huh, what do you?"

" _The challenge will be an all out Brawl!"_

The moment it was announced, Sora's opponent lunged, causing Sora to roll to the side immediately to evade. This guy was good and fast. As he resummoned his Keyblade to recharge the thing, he was stopped by Tippi.

"Sora, look at his weapon." He did as she asked, noticing the cards imbedded in the blade that had vanished as soon as his opponent lunged. "Cloud needs the cards to attack just like you. If he doesn't have them, then…"

"Then I can take him out." Sora raised his Keyblade just in time to avoid another strike from the warrior. "Wait Cloud?"

"That's his name. I got it when I scanned him." Not questioning anything more, Sora went on the offense, launching a fireball right at Cloud and watching as the blue card on his Keyblade vanished. The flaming ball of fire hit it's mark, but Cloud hardly seemed phased as he swung at Sora, knocking the boy back several feet and back towards the edges of the arena. "Sora!"

"Right, defensive, I know." Back on the offensive, Sora activated one of his attacking cards on the back of his Keyblade, watching as Cloud staggered. Seemed those times when the card broke didn't just affect him, and it gave Sora time to throw the Keyblade as well before Cloud seemed to recover from the hit. He continued to roll around the arena, watching for opportunities as he continued to dodge the strikes from the sword when suddenly it vanished.

"Sora, now!" Not that Tippi's shout mattered, as Sora was already on it, swinging the Keyblade as rapidly as possible as he slowly exhausted the cards dangling off the end, not that it mattered, since by the time his Keyblade vanished for a recharge Cloud was on one knee on the floor.

" _And the winner is Sora!"_

The same omnipresent announcement voice from earlier heralded Sora as a victory, and he grinned with pride, especially once the green cards began to glow and Bowser and Luigi were once more by his side.

"Hey, nice job Sora!" Luigi congratulated the Keyblade Master, earning a grin from the boy.

"Thanks!" He picked up the trophy and tossed it to Bowser, who just barely held onto it, and then approached Cloud. "You fought great!"

Cloud looked down. "Doesn't really matter does it? I had to win the tournament to regain my memories. Now there's no way he'll give them to me."

Wait…memories? "Your memories? He?"

As though answering Sora's questions, the room shook, a new door appearing in a broken apart crack in what felt like the seams of reality. "Oh Cloud, you had to just go off and spoil the surprise, didn't you."

"Tabuu! What are you doing here?" Bowser growled. "Haven't we kicked your ass enough already!"

"You couldn't even win a tournament, how sad." Tabuu ignored the turtle, instead focusing on Sora. "You. Since Cloud could not do as I asked, I'll have you do it. Meet with Master Hand an infect him with darkness. Bring this world under my control."

"No way!" It didn't even take Sora a second to realize what he had to do. He reached into his pocket, pulling out another golden card and held it up to the room near where the distortion occurred. The card vanished, and the trio were taken to a new room, one dark and dangerous feeling, with nothing but ominous darkness surrounding them.

"I see, so you refuse my offer." Sora looked up to see a large glowing man with butterfly wings, one who almost appeared as though he was made out of data. "Very well then. This will be the last fight you'll ever see." Luigi and Bowser vanished, and the battle began.

"That's Tabuu. He's an incredibly powerful god of Subspace, a realm similar to the Realm of Darkness. His most powerful attack comes from the butterfly wings on his back, so if they start to pulse energy be ready to run."

While the information was useful, Sora didn't have a lot of time to comprehend it before he was ducking out of the way of a giant head of Tabuu shooting laser beams at him out of his eyes. He dodge rolled back and forth, waiting for a break in the onslaught to strike. Not that he had long since Tabuu had already summoned out a chain and was swooping in on the ground, hoping to do some damage and knocking Sora around quite a bit as Tabuu's warps made it difficult to predict the next angle to dodge easily.

"Luigi! Bowser! I need some help!" Not having much of a choice, Sora immediately summoned out his friends.

"Yikes! Tabuu!" Luigi recovered quickly from the realization that Sora was fighting Tabuu in favor of actually battling him, hitting him with a powerful fireball before jumping up in the air and performing a spin attack in the air.

"You've gotten us into some mess this time, Sora." Bowser jumped into the air and clawed at Tabuu the moment that Luigi vanished.

Sora took advantage of the momentary distraction for a moment to raise his Keyblade in the air. "Heal!" A green light engulfed him, healing him up to full health. Immediately after the heal went through, he attempted to attack, but found that none of his swipes were doing any damage as Tabuu ignored him to continue on with the spammed onslaught.

"This isn't working. Sora we've got to get out."

"No way, we can do this." As though to prove Sora's point as he swung again, Tabuu finally appeared to take some hits, and almost stand there for a moment, stunned. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Sora began swinging his Keyblade wherever possible, hoping that dealing even an ounce of damage might have an actual effect or two as he attempted to take down Tabuu. However, it wasn't long before his Keyblade vanished, leaving Sora out of options.

"You fought admirably, Keyblade Wielder, but your efforts were for naught." Two pair of butterfly wings formed around Tabuu, starting to gather energy within.

Sora looked over to Tippi for guidance, but the butterfly Pixl was at a loss for ideas as she seemed to desperately be scanning for a weak point. "Nothing?"

"Sora, if we don't make this, I just want to say thank you." Tippi had flown over to Sora. Despite knowing she could do little, at least being not in the air might protect her even more fragile body. As the attack came close to connecting, her body began to glow and a blue card appeared of the boy from Bitlands.

"Can that do anything?"

"I don't know but it's worth a try." And for a moment, Tippi vanished, replacing her entirely with the boy from there. He raised his arm, and a barrier formed around himself and Sora just as the energy waves would've hit Sora, reflecting them back at Tabuu.

Hit with his own attack, Tabuu fell with a growl. "You haven't seen the last of me." And with that, he vanished, taking Subspace with him, and causing Sora and Tippi both to fall unconscious.

* * *

 

Sora wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was relieved to be back in the Smash Arena once more and away from the distortion of Subspace. "So, guess you both finally woke up." Cloud approached Sora. "I'm sorry about what happened here. I shouldn't have let my lack of memories dictate how I acted in an event like this, or what I was willing to do."

"It doesn't matter, we beat him, right?" Sora gave a grin, causing Cloud to almost smile back.

"I suppose that's true." He started to leave, but stopped when Tippi flew in front of him.

"Where are you going?"

"I made enough of a mess here. Besides, I have memories to find." Unconcerned with Tippi, Cloud continued towards the exit.

"Hey, Cloud! Hope you get your memories back. Don't worry about figuring out the method, all you have to do is find something to jog it. After all, our memories are never really gone, so I doubt yours are gone for good." Sora grinned, but if Cloud heard him, he didn't acknowledge him. Instead choosing to keep on walking.

"Anyways, Tippi, you ready to keep on going?"

"Yes, let's go." And with that, they exited the floor, ready to face whatever challenge my be on the following floor.

 


End file.
